Amidst several challenges, apparel exporters are now forced to send their goods by air. And this is having very negative impact on their business.
There was already container shortage due to Covid and the Suez Canal blockage in March, suspension of operations at China’s Yantian port in June, with the recent typhoon in China making the situation more severe.
Now to ensure that apparels hit the stores shelves abroad on time for Christmas and New Year sales, there is no other option for apparel exporters and they are paying high price for air shipment.
For Christmas and New Year, targeted products need to reach the shelves by the end of November or even before.
The shift to air transport will cost exporters significantly more, but they are willing to take it as they don’t want to risk losing clients by failing to deliver on time.
As per industry estimates, every year, between June and September, exporters from Tirupur send apparels to global markets worth nearly Rs 8,000 crore.
Raja M. Shanmugham, President, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) said that exporters now don’t have a choice but shell out ten times the cost to transport by air.
It is important to mention here that normally consignments reach Europe in 26 days and the US in 35 days and buying sequences are designed accordingly. But due to the non-availability of containers, the delay has become unavoidable and in such cases air mode is used and consignments take a maximum of one week to reach the destination.
Time and again, trade bodies have raised the issue to the Government, but so far they have not got any solution in this regard.